28/04/2014

Cetascean/Ahna-Imperial Decline split lp

My apologies to the guy from What Is Making Us Sick for the delay but it is better late than later :). Here we got two Canadian bands, Cetascean come from Winnipeg, to be honest i never heard about them before, they have released a self-titled 7" on Mercy of Slumber and the Crows 10" on Mercy Of Slumber, What Is Making Us Sick and Phobia Rec.s. Ahna come from Vancouver, British Columbia, they started as a duet and later they added a guitar player, they have a shitload of releases under their belt. check their bancamp for more and their interview with many many details about them, for Profane Existence. Imperial Decline was co-released by Profane Existence, Phobia Rec.s, Neanderthal-Stench, Doomed Society, What is Making us Sick and Mercy of Slumber, with such labels behind it, this record can't be bad: Cetascean start with a fast but heavy crust/stencore thunder which connects the band with hteir previous releases though the real face in this record is revealed in the second track where the band slows down tha pace: Simian is a heavy stenchcore song with slow/midpaced first half part that gets fast yet steady in the end. the rest songs move in the same pathway of heavy stenchcore with hints of sludge and hardcore. After a listening to their previous releases the process of leaving pure crust areas and reaching heavier, doomy and stenchore territories is obvious and thats what their side reflects here. On the other side of vinyl, Ahna deliver heavy and brutal crust inspired by the demo recordings and In Battle There is No Law sessions of Bolt Thrower: Heavy as hell death metal driven crust with deep low throaty vocals (and some screamed backing vocals here and there), thick metal edged guitar and mid paced/fast drumming, the whole thing reminds of early Bolt Thrower, a hell of deathly crust massacre at its best. Lyric wise and as the description in Profane Existence site says "the record delivers thought provoking themes critiquing imperial war mongering, weapons manufacturing, vivisection, environmental annihilation, neo-colonialism, and systemic oppression within and outside the DIY punk community". Good.. good! I said too much.... The record is available via the labels, the seven songs of split are on bandcamp.